Mastering the Requirements Process

This volume aims to enable software developers to engineer systems that the users both want and need. It contains techniques tried and tested in numerous different industry situations and explains how to implement an easily learned, ongoing formal requirements process.

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Delivering the software that your customer really wants. "Mastering the Requirements Process and the Volere specification template are real breakthroughs. They introduce the beginnings of science to a domain which had, up till now, been ruled by craft." - Tom DeMarco It is widely recognized that incorrect requirements account for up to 60% of errors in software products, and yet the majority of software development organizations do not have a formal requirements process. Many organizations appear willing to spend huge amounts on fixing and altering badly-specified software, but seem unwilling to invest a much smaller amount to get the requirements right in the first place. This is a book for those who want to get the right requirements. Mastering the Requirements Process sets out an industry-tested process for gathering and verifying requirements. It provides the techniques and insights for discovering precisely what the customer wants and needs. "Mastering the Requirements Process shows, step by step, template by template, example by example, one well-tested way to assemble a complete, comprehensive requirements process."
- Jerry Weinberg The specification template in this book provides the basis for your own requirements specifications. It guides you to the correct specification content as each part of the process reveals different aspects of the products functionality and properties. This book shows you how to make the requirement measurable and testable. By providing a measurement - a fit criterion - for each requirement, the requirements analyst can describe precisely what the customer wants, the designer can construct a product that exactly matches the requirement, and the tester can determine whether or not the final solution satisfies the requirement. "The Robertsons' concept of fit criteria is -- all by itself -- worth the investment of your time to read the whole book. Fit criteria and the allied discipline of quality gateways enable you to build requirement sets that are measurable, provably correct and testibly complete." - Tom DeMarco